


A Second Chance

by grumpycloud



Category: Andi Mack (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Child Abuse, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-31
Updated: 2019-05-31
Packaged: 2020-04-05 07:45:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19044193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grumpycloud/pseuds/grumpycloud
Summary: Life hasn't been kind to TJ Kippen. However, with the help of his friends maybe he'll finally get a second chance at the life he always wanted.





	A Second Chance

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfic, and practically all of this was written past 1:00am, so sorry if it's mediocre. Anyway thanks for checking out my story, hope you enjoy :).

Staring down the barrel of a gun wasn’t exactly how TJ expected to spend his Sunday morning. He wishes he could say it started out peaceful, but the first thing he woke up to was being dragged off his bed. From the floor he could see his father’s face, and knew from the expression that there was no point in talking sense to him. Suddenly he heard his father’s voice “…you ungrateful peace of shit.” The startled teen clearly missed the first part of the sentence, but it didn’t matter since he was being thrown into the wall; his back and chest felt like they were on fire as all the air was knocked out of him. He felt his father grab his hair and lift him, slamming his head over and over against the same wall. 

He must’ve blacked out at some point during the mess because he could hear his mom screaming from somewhere in the house, and no longer saw his father in the room with him. “Adam stop- please!” her eyes were filled with tears as he began walking toward her, she started to back up towards the front of the house, and into the living room. “Please I’m so sorry, this was my fault. I shouldn’t have said-” she was suddenly cut off by a hand around her throat, and all the air in her lungs evacuating.

When TJ finally came to, he stood as quickly as he could, vision swimming and head throbbing, and followed in pursuit of them. “Mom?” His voice was still a bit raspy having just woken up. When the boy turned, he saw his father’s hand wrapped around his mother’s throat and lost it, he ran up to him and punched him as hard as he could. He continued punching him till he could see bruises form. At the same time his mother was now leaning against the wall, breathing heavily and touching her throat. Drawing his attention away from his father, he went over to her and knelt down putting his hand on hers “Are you okay?” She nodded tears filling her eyes.

“I love you baby, you’re my entire world, I need you to never forget that, okay?” He couldn’t understand why she was saying that, yeah there was bruising around her throat, but it’s definitely not the worst she’s had. He then saw her eyes flicker past him and he could’ve sworn his heart stopped. He slowly stood and turned, and was now starring down the barrel of a gun.

“You think your stronger than me? Huh boy!” His father was screaming at this point waving the gun around, ultimately pointing it back at TJ “Not so tough now are you!”

“Dad please, I’m sorry” TJ was shaking so bad he was surprised he didn’t faze through the floor. He saw his dad’s face twist, and he thought maybe he came to, but then the sound of a gun going off filled his ears. He closed his eyes waiting for the bullet to hit, but it never did. He only opened his eyes when he heard the thud of something hitting the ground. His mother was suddenly in front of him, unmoving, her face horrified. He dropped to his knees lifting her upper half and holding it close to his chest. He looked up at his father and began repeatedly screaming “what did you do!” at the top of his lungs, tears streaming down his face full force. He then returned his gaze back towards his mother, unaware that he was rocking back and forth.

His father stumbled back a few steps lifting his hands to his head and freaking out “No no no no no, no I’m so sorry. I love you. Please. God no, what did I do?” TJ looked up at his father for a moment, and he could see him return right before another deafening sound flooded his ears. He was frozen in place staring at his fathers’ body, yet his mind felt like a void.

 

* * *

 

Jim Beck and his co-workers were sitting around playing cards when they got a call informing them about a shooting. They rushed into the ambulance and made their way to the address they were given. When they arrived, they didn’t expect to immediately be put into action. As Jim entered, he was met with the sight of three seemingly dead people; the one that drew the most attention to him was the boy leaning against the wall limp with, what he could assume was his mother, laying across his lap.

Jim and three other paramedics went to inspect the bodies. Jim and one of his female colleagues, Jenny, approached they boy and what they assumed was the mom.  Jenny placed her fingers on the boy’s neck “He still has a pulse.”

Jim turned to her and said “We need to get his mother off of him.” He began to check the vitals of the boy and assess his injuries “Due to the bruising around his eyes we can assume he suffered some sort of severe head trauma.” He stopped for a second leaning over the boy to check behind his ear “He also has bruising around the back of his ear, so he likely has a basilar skull fracture, which means we have to be especially careful when moving him.”

Jim gently placed his hands under the woman’s body lifting her enough to get her off of the boy. The two other paramedics that were there had already retrieved a stretcher, Jim and the other guys lifted the kid onto the stretcher and got it into the ambulance.

On the way to the hospital the kid started to wake up. He began to panic and ramble, but his words were severely slurred to the point where it was impossible to comprehend. “Son, I’m going to need you to calm down.” He thought the kid was listening to him, until he saw his eyes roll into the back of his head. “Shit, he’s having a seizure” He looked up at Jenny “Give him four milligrams of lorazepam.” He then shouted to the driver to go faster, even though he knew they were already going as fast as they could. The rest of the ride the kid kept going in and out of consciousness, but luckily there were no other complications.

Once they arrived at the hospital, they got him into the ICU, they still needed to check the rest of him to see if there was any other damage. He left the room to speak with one of the hospital doctors, when one of the nurses who was changing TJ into a hospital gown came out. “I think you might want to see this” she said looking too indifferent as she spoke.

They went back into the room and the nurse pulled back the covers to reveal the boys chest, which was covered in scars. They then turned him on his side and saw that his back was the same way.

The doctor was the first to speak “I’ll inform the police.” He left the room as the nurses finished putting the hospital gown on him.

 

* * *

 

When TJ woke his head was throbbing and he could barely tell where he was. He tried to speak right away, but none of his words came out quite right. Waking up, TJ looked around the room and realized he was surrounded by strangers. Suddenly there were hands on his shoulders pushing him down, which was strange because he couldn’t remember trying to sit up. He started to panic until he heard the same voice that was in the ambulance “Kid you need to relax, you’re safe.” TJ realized that he wasn’t breathing and started gasping for air.

Still disoriented TJ began to speak “What happened? Why am I here?” His words were slurred, almost indecipherable to the people around him.

A new voice spoke up “TJ, can you try to tell me what you last remember?”

“I- I don’t know. I think I was sketching in my room and texting one of my friends, but my memory just kinda blanks out after that.” As he spoke the words aloud something felt extremely off.

The same voice spoke up again “Are you sure that’s all you remember?”

Before he could reply, he heard someone else chime in “I wouldn’t push too hard, with the head trauma he suffered he’s likely to not remember anything that happened during or before-” the man abruptly cut himself off, leaving TJ even more confused. Head trauma, is that why his head felt like it was on fire?

After a brief moment of silence TJ realized he was in a medical gown and not his normal clothes causing him to panic. “W-where are my clothes?” his words came out frantic and slurred making it difficult to understand what he was saying. “No, no this can’t be happening.” he could feel tears well up in his eyes “He’s gonna kill me, people were never supposed to find out. God I am so fucked.” He muttered while almost ripping the hair out of his head with how hard he was pulling on it.

He felt hands grab his wrists and bring them down. He heard a man’s voice “He can’t hurt you anymore, we won’t let that happen.”

TJ looked up at who he finally realized was a paramedic “Yeah, and what’s the alternative, going into foster care?” He glared up at the man “I’d rather be with my parents,” he returned his gaze back to the sheets “Even if my dad gets a little carried away sometimes.”

It felt like an eternity since anyone had said anything. But then the paramedic, who he just recognized as Mr. Beck, said “Son, both of your parents are dead.”

TJ turned and threw up all over the floor. He wiped his mouth, hands shaking, and tears in his eyes. Mr. Beck spoke again “I’m so sorry”

TJ stared down at the bedsheets, everything was too fucking sterile, he felt like he was being held underwater with no way to get up. After a few seconds he spoke up “I think I’m just tired, can you all please just leave?” His voice was barely above a whisper, and if the room wasn’t so horrifyingly silent no one would’ve caught it. He watched as they all exited the room one at a time, before turning to lay on his side.

 

* * *

 

Jim approached the policeman handling the case “What are the odds the kid can come stay with me? At least until he gets put into a good home.”

The man sighed “Being honest, not great.” He was about to walk away but turned back for a moment “Are you even sure you’d be able to handle a teenager that’s been through what that kid’s been through?”

Jim met his gaze “Not even close, but I’d sure as hell try my best.”

The man paused and then nodded “I’ll see what I can do.” And with that the man was gone.

 

* * *

 

In his line of work Jim has seen a lot of things, and for the most part the calls he receives don’t affect him, but some, like TJ’s case, follow him home. As he entered his house, he could hear the tv and his son playing guitar. The sound of the tv quickly diminished as his wife, Laura, appeared around the corner with a smile plastered on her face “Hey love, how was work today.” Her face dropped after Jim didn’t answer the question, rather just looked down. “Baby, what’s wrong?” She questioned walking over to him and putting a hand on his cheek.

He was about to answer when his son emerged from his room and began walking down the stairs “Oh! Hey dad” Jonah smiled and made his way into the kitchen.

Jim whispered to his beautiful wife “I’ll tell you later.” And with that he went into the kitchen walking over to where Jonah had been raiding the fridge engulfing the boy in a hug.

Jonah laughed and made a weird face wrapping his arms around his father “What’s with this?”

After a couple of seconds Jim let go and looked at his son “You know you’re my entire world?”

Jonah’s face morphed into an awkward smile “Yeah I know…  but seriously what’s going on? Did I miss something?” the boy looked at his mom.

Jim looked at his wife and thought that it’d be best to have both of them here “How would you feel if we took in another kid?” He paused watching his wife’s eyes widen “It wouldn’t be permanent, just until they can find a safe place for him to stay.” Laura let out a deep breath walking to sit at the island, Jonah was simply standing near the fridge.

Laura was the first to speak “Where the heck did this come from? Jim we’ve got one loud obnoxious teen,” she paused looking at Jonah “No offense love, you know I love you” he just put up a hand in understanding, with that she looked back at her husband “And I don’t know if we can take in another.”

Jim looked towards Jonah “Can you go upstairs for a bit?”

Jonah nodded “Thank you” he practically sped out of the kitchen.

Jim looked back to his wife “His parents died Laura, he has nowhere else to go… I had to tell him that his parents died, he didn’t even remember.”

Laura got up and walked over to her husband “What’s his name?”

“It’s TJ Kippen.”

“Wasn’t that a kid on the little league team that stole our son’s jersey?” She broke out into a soft laughter.

Jim let out a small laugh “Yeah… at least we know Jonah finally got over that.”

Laura grabbed her husband’s hands “Okay.”

Jim looked up wide eyed and hopeful “What?”

Laura smiled and kissed her husband’s cheek “I said okay, but we have to make sure it’s okay with Jonah first.” As she finished the sentence, she was quickly lifted off her feet and spun around.

Jim kissed her “I love you”.

 

* * *

 

Jonah was sitting in his room listening to music and trying to finish up an English paper when his dad walked in. Jim proceeded to sit on the bed before speaking “Would you be alright if TJ Kippen came to stay with us?”


End file.
